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Jim Gardner (broadcaster)
JIM GARDNER has helped guide viewers of Action News through every news event, large and small, since 1976. Even though he was born, raised and educated in New York City, Gardner has lived most of his adult life in the Philadelphia area, and his roots here run deep. Gardner received his Bachelor of Arts degree from Columbia University in 1970. It was actually at Columbia where Gardner got his first taste of Broadcast Journalism. He reported on the "Historic Student Riots" at Columbia in 1968 for Columbia's radio station, WKCR-FM. Following his graduation in 1970, Gardner was a desk assistant, writer and producer for all-news WINS Radio in New York. In 1972, Gardner joined WFAS Radio in White Plains, New York as a reporter. Shortly after arriving at the station, Gardner was appointed News Director. In 1974, WKBW-TV offered him a job as a news reporter in Buffalo. Within six months, Gardner added the role of weekend anchor and substitute weekday anchor to his duties. As a very young and still very green anchorman, Gardner was pressed into his first "big" story when the station's veteran anchorman was on vacation, and Richard Nixon resigned the presidency. In January of 1976, Gardner launched WKBW's noon news broadcast, which immediately became the highest rated noon newscast in the market. Gardner joined WPVI-TV in Philadelphia on June 1st, 1976 as a reporter and anchor of the noon news. He became the station's anchor of the 5:30 news in November of 1976. On May 11, 1977, Gardner assumed his current position of anchorman of Action News at 6pm and 11pm. Gardner has won numerous awards, but like his colleagues at Action News, he is more proud of the special relationship he and his co-workers have established with the viewers of the Philadelphia region. Gardner feels his "awards panel" is made up of the millions of viewers who regularly rely on Action News for information about their neighborhoods, their communities, the region, the country and the world. While many local, national and international stories do stand out, Gardner is most proud of his longevity and consistency, being there at 6 and 11 day in and day out for more than 35 years. Jim feels that a successful anchor must be a good reporter. Gardner has left the confines of the newsroom and the studio to follow John Cardinal Krol to the Vatican for the death of Pope Paul VI. Gardner also traveled to the Rein Mein Air Force Base near Frankfurt, West Germany to report on the return of the American Hostages held in Lebanon. Jim Gardner reported from Russia on the demise of the Soviet Empire. And when the Israeli-Palestinian Peace accords were signed in Washington, Gardner went to Israel and the West Bank to tell the historic story from the point of view of Israelis and Palestinians alike. Gardner has covered every Democratic and Republican political convention since 1980, and has interviewed every president and major presidential candidate since 1976. Jim Gardner's community obligations are important to him. He has long been committed to the efforts of the Federation of Allied Jewish Appeal. He is grateful for the opportunity to devote time and resources to The Friends' Central School in Wynnewood and to his Alma Mater, Columbia University. Gardner was named Columbia's Philadelphia alumnus of the year in 1985. Since 1987, one student each year studying journalism or broadcasting at Temple University has been awarded the Jim Gardner Scholarship to help pay for his or her education. Jim has four children, and lives with his wife, Amy, in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania.